I am so excited to share Oliver's Birth Story with ya'll! It was definitely an interesting day!

We started off that morning with a trip to the OB's office. He let us know that I was 2 centimeters dilated and 80% effaced. I was exactly 38 weeks pregnant. That morning I told Domenic that I wanted to have the baby that day. I made him pack our hospital bags in the car before we headed to the hospital, and even asked the Doctor if he would induce me that day! My Doctor told me that he expected to see me in the delivery room by the weekend. We left the hospital with no baby... shocker.

With my due date approaching and hoping for my water to break any minute, Domenic didn't want me to go anywhere without him. He was too scared that he would miss my water breaking. I spent the day bored at home and coming up with random ways to pass the time.

Around 7 pm, Dom and I decided to take Macy out for ice cream! We knew that our time together as a family of 3 was limited. We went to Serendipity Sweets in Vestavia Hills. Macy got a nice walk in and her own bowl of ice-cream! Spoilt little puppy.

After our ice cream date, Dom and I headed to my grandmother's neighborhood to use the gym. I don't have a membership at Dom's gym right now and I really wanted to work out.

Here is when the fun started!Before walking down to the gym, I stopped to use the bathroom at my grandmother's house. While using the bathroom I felt something "fall" out of me! Literally that was how I described it to Domenic and my brother and they made fun of me for not knowing what had happened. It wasn't a large gush of water so I wasn't convinced that my water had broken. Looking back at it now, it was obvious that my water was breaking, but I was too stubborn to admit it.

We walked down to the gym and started working out. Over the next 20 minutes or so I kept leaking fluid. At first Dom thought I was peeing my pants, but I knew that there was no way that I was peeing myself with every squat! I kept putting paper towels to collect the fluid, and I was soaking through a set of paper towels every minute or so. Just in case my water had indeed broken, we decided to take some selfies to commemorate the moment. I got a good arm workout it which was a must if I was going into labor that night :)

At this point, I hadn't had any contractions and still wasn't convinced that my water had really broken. I called the OB on call and got a half hearted "if you want to come in and get checked out you are more than welcome to". I was terrified of going to the hospital and being sent back home so I decided to stick it out and see what happened.

About 20 minutes after my water started breaking at the gym, I started having contractions. I began tracking my contractions at 9pm. For about an hour they were averaging 7-9 minutes apart and were about 30 seconds long. I tried to sleep but that wasn't happening. Dom suggested that I take a bath to try and easy the pain. The bath slowed the contractions down for about 30 minutes, but then they started picking up in intensity. I tried to get Domenic to sleep, but he was too nervous to get much sleep. He kept calling me on my phone in the living room to see how far apart my contractions were!

At 1am, I had been laboring at home for 4 hours and my contractions were averaging about 2 minutes apart and 45 seconds long. I finally decided it was time to head to the hospital. Of course, right after I tell Dom we need to go to the hospital, he decides to make a pot of coffee... typical Domenic. My contractions were worse when sitting down then when standing up, so the ride there was rough.

We showed up to the valet parking at the entrance to the women's center and it was deserted! The doors to the center were locked where we had planned to enter (out OB tour was set for next week so we knew nothing about the layout of the hospital). We found a security guard and Dom yells out "I think we might be having a baby. Where do we go?!" In my head I'm yelling "MIGHT BE HAVING A BABY?!?" The security guard tells us to follow him, takes a lap of the parking lot, and pulls right back to where we started! I'm starting to yell in the car at this point! The poor flustered security guard admits that he doesn't know where to go either! He tells Dom to leave the car in the road, unlocks the doors to the women's center and starts trying to to figure out how to get us to the labor and delivery floor. Poor guy was freaking out as I'm having contractions in the elevator and he is trying every floor to find the labor and delivery unit.

We finally make it to the labor and delivery floor, get set up in a room, and I get checked. I was 4 centimeters dilated so we knew that we were going to stay. Suddenly I got a contraction that lasted 5 minutes long! I was throwing up from the pain. When the contraction was over, the nurse checked me again and I was 7 centimeters. At this point I had been in labor for about 6 hours, was over it, and asked for an epidural.

Once I got the epidural, things were much more peaceful and enjoyable. My friends got some questionable selfies. It took me about 5 minutes to end each text message because I was so out of it. I absolutely loved my epidural.

Once I had my epidural, I labored down for another hour. At 7 am I started pushing. I had thrown up about 6 times by now, so I was hooked up to an IV for fluids. The babies heart rate started dropping, so I was also given a face mask of oxygen to help bring his heart rate up. I was so relaxed from the epidural and the oxygen that I fell asleep twice in-between pushes!

After an hour and a half of pushing, Oliver was born at 8:28 am! He weighed 7lbs 7 ounces and 20 inches. He cried for about a minutes as they cleaned him off. As soon as they put him on my chest he calmed right down. It was such a surreal moment. I remember holding him, chatting with the doctor as he stitched me up, and just feeling like I was in another world somewhere.

My family came in about 30 minutes after he was born to meet him. I later came to find out that they had all snuck into the delivery hallway and were listening at the door as he was born until they were kicked out.

About 2 hours after he was born, we were brought up to the mom and baby suites. Brookwood Women's Center was so fantastic. We absolutely loved our stay there. Over the next few days, Dom and I did our best to catch up on some sleep with the little guy!

We were so thankful to learn that Oliver and I both passed all of our health checks! We got to bring him home on Friday morning! All in all, it was an amazing experience. What they say about labor is true, as soon as it is over and you have that little one in your hands, you forget that you were ever in any pain at all.

Shelby SimoneI am a 26 years old follower of Jesus living in Rhode Island with my 2 little men and wicked handsome husband. I love coffee that doesn't taste like coffee, am really bad at putting on lipstick and vocally wish I could join the CIA. Now that you know a little about me, time to read a whole lot more!